Like peanut butter and jelly, cookies and cream or peas and carrots of course when you think of your favorite pair ups solitaire and horse racing instantly come to mind. Pocket Card Jockey comes to us from GameFreak and this is one of the most addicting games I have played since Rusty’s Real Deal Slugger. GameFreak is also the same team that has brought us Yoshi for the NES, Drill Dozer and Pokemon. This charming little racer combines solitaire and horse racing in a way that surprisingly makes sense. Players start the game given a horse and are walked through a wordy training stage but do not worry the tip horse that helps out will be less chatty later. Players begin each race at the gate with a quick hand of solitaire to get to one of the START! cards looking to find the 5 gems for the best start.
As you round the track your place and pace are set by how well you do with each hand of solitaire while picking up power-ups on the field to level up your horse.
In the later races a vendor comes and sells products to help you through some of the tougher stretches. She sells everything from goggles and gloves for the jockey to carrots for the horse’s stamina.
I find myself logging in to squeeze in a race to level up my colt or even pop in to the training section for a quick hand.
The music is delightful and keeps you engaged with each turn. Winning feels great and even when the race comes to the final stretch you really feel your enthusiasm
matches with your horse as he goes all out toward the end of the race.
Each of the characters throughout the game so far have been both funny and engaging and even when you get your horse to a certain age you send them out to pasture to
breed. Each horse has his or her own characteristics, for example, my horse likes to race in second place and then take first in the final stretch as a closer. Which
can get nerve wracking! A lot of races end in a dead heat if you do well but when you do poorly in solitaire it reflects in your place when finishing. I have not
gotten a chance to try out any new horses from my pasture but I am looking forward to seeing how they perform with the parent’s characteristics combined.
I wonder if I search the grass enough if I can find a shiny steed.
I highly recommend for any 3DS owner to go out and try out the free demo on the eShop right now since I am having a blast with what I thought was not a game for me. At only a $7.99 price point this game is fantastic and I cannot wait to see what GameFreak has in store next for us on the 3DS
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